How Shakespeare Spoke - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

Forget Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft, Al Pacino and Judi Dench. To take us back to Shakespeare's own time Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright hear Shakespeare as he himself would have spoken. The original, unvarnished version from linguist David Crystal and actor Ben Crystal. They look at the fashion for Original Pronunciation and ask what it can tell us about how we speak now.

Michael and Laura perform some of Shakespeare's best known work in the original accent and attempt to bring new meaning and wit to language coated by centuries of veneer.

Producer: Mair Bosworth.

Further episodes of Word of Mouth

Further podcasts by BBC Radio 4

Website of BBC Radio 4